GMB Scotland has today (Thursday 25 January) slammed a decision by the local health and social care partnership to impose detrimental contractual changes on local home care staff.

At a meeting of the Dundee Integrated Joint Board (IJB) yesterday, board members voted to support a controversial plan which will force home carers to choose between a mix of 30 hour split-shift contracts, 25 hour split-shift contracts and 23 hour single shift contracts, despite an amendment which was put forward to leave the decision to the elected members of the council.

GMB previously raised its concerns about complex ‘banked hours’ elements which would particularly affect home carers on 30 hour contracts and give management total control over staff ‘on-call’ cover for sickness and annual leave in the service.

A final decision on the changes will be made by Dundee City Council’s Policy and Resources Committee.

GMB Scotland Organiser Helen Meldrum said: “This decision puts our members between a rock and a hard place – either work longer and harder at the beck and call of management with no pay increase or accept reduced hours and less pay.

No agreement was ever reached between service management and GMB over these proposals before they were sent to the IJB and no consultation was ever conducted between the IJB and GMB either.

This is a total hatchet job on some of the lowest paid workers across Dundee City and Angus Councils - a workforce that is almost exclusively women - who have already endured a decade of cuts to their jobs and services.

And it is nothing short of scandalous that we have some board members who have no elected mandate or relevant council remit, recommending cuts to our members terms and conditions of employment.

To defend our members’ interests and in an effort to halt this shameful imposition, GMB will move to a full consultative ballot of our members, fuelling the real possibility of industrial action.”